One change all users will notice is to its package of streaming plans, as CEO Reed Hastings mentioned an $11.99 per month option is incoming that will allow subscribers to stream as many four videos simultaneously, up from the current official limit of two. There's some question over whether Netflix will begin to crack down harder on account sharing, but Hastings claims he expects less than one percent of users to opt for the new plan. The company is also continuing to test the personalized profiles we got a peek at during CES, and expects to roll them out "in the coming months." Another major note is that as it expands its suite of original content, it's shifting focus away from some of existing "bulk, nonexclusive" licensing deals and will let a major one from Viacom expire in May. specifically referenced is content from Nickelodeon, MTV and BET, although it's negotiating for access to particular shows. In the future, it's preferred option will be exclusive deals with the studios that product the shows, like the one it announced earlier this year with Warner. Check after the break for a few more details, including updates on the progress of some of its original series.

Another item previewed in the letter is a new streaming platform coming to various devices around the holidays that will focus on small size and quick startup speed, "aiming to match the time required for a linear channel change." One of the big questions as it's started to roll out original content is how customers will react and while it's still not giving any specific viewership stats, Netflix did provide some new details. According to Reed, fewer than 8,000 people created a free account just to watch House of Cards and then quit. The just-released Hemlock Grove is reportedly doing well with young adults, and notched more viewers in its first weekend than HoC did.

Netflix has reached an agreement with the Disney/ABC Television group to become the only subscription streaming service to offer the popular children's shows "Jake and the Never Land Pirates" and the animated "Tron: Uprising."

The multiyear licensing deal also brings "Handy Manny," "Special Agent Oso" and "JoJo's Circus" to the movie and television service on a non-exclusive basis.

PBS docs are expiring? Instead of Netflix closing contracts, are there any big ones they've gotten lately? First the 1200 moves that left on May 1st, then the Paramount deal, now this? I want to subscribe again but I'm disappointed that there aren't any real significant announcements for new stuff.

PBS docs are expiring? Instead of Netflix closing contracts, are there any big ones they've gotten lately? First the 1200 moves that left on May 1st, then the Paramount deal, now this? I want to subscribe again but I'm disappointed that there aren't any real significant announcements for new stuff.

I think we're going to see more and more original series and/or stuff like season three of "The Killing," where Netflix has a deal with a studio for exclusive hosting of a show. Netflix losing movies has MUCH more to do on the studio end of negotiations (studios would much rather have a PPV/a la carte system for their films) than anything Netflix is doing on their end.

$7.99 a month for House of Cards and new Arrested Development is more than worth the money IMHO. And they don't beat us over the head with adverts like Hulu does.

I'd like to see a new pricing plan for Netflix: $6.99 for their current selection, $7.99 if you don't want "Hemlock Grove".

Could not agree more. This is the downside of them focusing on original content. I can live with losing some of that content I will never watch, but if I'm losing it to fund garbage like Hemlock Grove I have to question keeping Netflix.

The end of April suddenly became very stressful for Netflix subscribers, as it was widely reported that nearly 1,800 titles would be disappearing from its Watch Instantly service in the US. Unfortunately, it likely caused a lot of tension in Los Gatos as well and tonight the company revealed it's changing its policies. Quickly dubbed "Streampocalypse," some blamed it on competition like Warner Archive Instant, despite many of the listed titles actually being related to Netflix's agreement with Epix. As we now know, on May 1st the sun rose once again and there are still some movies and TV shows to watch on Netflix streaming, but for just a few hours you might have thought that would not be the case.

The list came from the third-party site InstantWatcher, which we've long recommended to help users sort selections in ways not supported by the official page and apps including by year, Rotten Tomatoes rating or New York Times Critics' Picks. Starting today however, that will not include the ability to list "expiring soon" titles. As Daniel Jacobson posted to Netflix's API developer blog, it will stop including expiration dates in the public API. While we're sad to see the amount of data available to the public reduced and are still peeved over the public API being shelved entirely, after last week's incident we can certainly understand why. Netflix did not directly reference the incident in its statement, but one can certainly connect the dots -- read on for more information.

Quote:

With the frequent, often last minute, changes in content flow the title expiration data available through our API has been inaccurate, so we have decided to no longer publish this information.

While long time watchers of Netflix's streaming catalog are more used to the movements of content in and out -- it's not at all uncommon to see titles on the expiring soon list end up not expiring due to deals simply being renewed -- casual viewers may see massive changes listed and not fully grasp what's going on, leading to mass confusion. Netflix had previously removed "coming soon" data from its API and pulled the RSS feed that listed newly added titles every day. Now, it's moving towards methods like push notifications in its mobile apps, Facebook integration and the upcoming rollout of individual profiles to keep recommendations relevant for specific household members. What we'd like to see are tools from Netflix that allow us more direct access to the data and ability to browse as we see fit -- as good as it says its algorithms are, sometimes we're in the mood to do the choosing in our own way.

And the Fleisher Superman cartoons are gone why? They're in the public domain! They've finally started broadcasting Wi-Fi at work, but the network use locks us out of most video sites like YouTube, as well as forums like this one. It doesn't seem to have locked me out of Netflix however! But figures that when they finally do it, But now Netflix dumps a whole bunch of their content! Story of my life.

They've blocked that too. Why'd they bother giving us wifi if we could only use it to look at pictures and text? That's like giving someone a car and telling them they can't drive it anywhere this isn't within walking distance.

Ask Netflix Vice President of Product Innovation Todd Yellin what makes the streaming giant special, and he'll start telling you about algorithms, test groups and suggestion engines. "It's the revolution of TV," he explained to us at E3. "They used to send out a TV show and then they'd have no freaking idea who was watching it, how much they were watching ... it was just Nielsen diaries." A woefully inaccurate way to track content consumption, Yellin suggested. Netflix, on the other hand, can tell what folks are watching, when they are watching it, for how long and even on what device. Netflix uses all this information to offer users extremely specific suggestions and categories based on their recent use. The problem is, many families share a single account, and all their different tastes mix into a nonsensical mess. "You and your wife might have very different tastes," Yellin explained. "Why can't you have a profile, and she has a profile?" Separating the users on the family account would allow each user to get tailored suggestions based on their personal viewing experience. "We're finally launching it this summer."

Yellin pulled out an iPad, and showed the user-based sorting in action. It's pretty simple: loading up the app offers the user a one touch choice between profiles, which then drops into that person's tailored Netflix experience. Profiles can be aged locked, ensuring that profiles for children will only load up Netflix's kid hub -- fitting, since jumping between profiles is very similar to the firm's existing parental control solution. All in all, it seemed to be a very lightweight and pain free experience. The feature might not be useful for every Netflix user, but it sounds like a boon for families with wildly different tastes in content.

If you are trying to get Netflix and use Verizon’s broadband, then there is a good chance that your video performance is less than optimal. Some Verizon customers might even go as far as calling it a crappy Netflix experience. The reason: a behind-the-scenes power play between Verizon and Cogent Communications , one of the largest bandwidth providers. The head-butting between these two companies is over an arcane concept known as peering.

Spoiler:

Peering is essentially an arrangement between two bandwidth providers where they send and receive traffic from each other for free. The logic is that the data sent from one network to another is reciprocated. Verizon runs one of the largest last mile networks and owns the descendants of MCI. Cogent is one of the largest bandwidth providers, and its network is spread across the globe in hundreds of cities.

Cogent and Verizon peer to each other at about ten locations and they exchange traffic through several ports. These ports typically send and receive data at speeds of around 10 gigabit per second. When the ports start to fill up (usually at 50 percent of their capacity), the internet companies add more ports. In this case, through, Verizon is allowing the ports that connect to Cogent to get crammed. ”They are allowing the peer connections to degrade,” said Dave Schaffer, chief executive officer of Cogent said in an interview. “Today some of the ports are at 100 percent capacity.”

“Think of it as the on-ramp to the freeway being log-jammed,” Shaffer said. And that means your Netflix content, especially content sent by Netflix’s content delivery network, slows down, and you get pixelated pictures and buffering.

While not naming Netflix directly, Verizon has indicated to Cogent that the reason behind its actions is that Cogent is moving traffic for a large video provider. Schaffer confirmed the Netflix is one of their largest customers. “Over the past year Netflix has become a big partner for us. This is a business model problem, not an engineering problem,” Schaffer said.

Our sources tell us that Netflix recently bought 2 Terabits of bandwidth capacity in part to get around such cramming that was happening in places where it sends traffic directly to certain internet service providers.

When we called Verizon about this story asking if Verizon was having a problem with Cogent over peering issues associated with Netflix, Verizon spokesman Bill Kula said he’d get back to us. A few minutes later he sent the following reply that didn’t answer our question:

"Verizon operates one of America’s lowest-latency, highest capacity networks. The various classes of Internet speeds we offer are among the fastest in the nation. Time and again, customers rate us best in class in various reports and surveys. Our customers enjoy a consistently superior Internet experience because our networks can adapt and grow with their use."

Netflix has been growing like crazy and it now accounts for a whole lot of Internet traffic — almost one out of every 3 bits (32.3 percent) sent downstream to users in North America is Netflix traffic according to Sandvine, a company that makes traffic monitoring gear for ISPs. That’s a lot of congested ports.

Netflix’s growing popularity has made it a target of ISP (internet service providers) vitriol and anger, especially those who offer competitive services. Verizon, for instance owns 50 percent of Redbox, a video-over-the-Internet service that is competitive with Netflix. Time Warner Cable and Comcast are other large providers that has allowed degradation of the online video experience on its networks — after all the logic is that as people start to have a bad Netflix experience, they start to look for alternatives — perhaps the ISP’s own pay TV offering.

This isn’t the first application last mile network operators have tried to degrade — last year the wrath of the Baby Bells and cable companies fell on Megaupload, a file sharing company started by Kim Dotcom, Schaffer said. That too was one of the big bandwidth-hungry services popular with the end customers of the ISPs — actual consumers.

Netflix Inc. and PBS Distribution recently signed an expanded deal, which will bring two new exclusive series to subscribers. The renewed contract will help Netflix to stream The Bletchley Circle, a popular murder mystery show from UK and kids preschool series, Super Why!.

Netflix will also stream children shows such as Wild Kratts, Caillou and Arthur, documentaries such as Prohibition and Central Park Five and past seasons of non-fiction series like Nova and Secrets of the Dead.